What Rahul Gandhi said about MGNREGA scheme and VB–G RAM G
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Friday accused the Modi government of dismantling the 20-year-old MGNREGA scheme in a single day. He called the new 'VB-G Ram Ji' bill "anti-village."
Rahul said, "Last night, the Modi government demolished twenty years of MGNREGA in one day.
He said VB–G RAM G isn’t a “revamp” of MGNREGA. It demolishes the rights-based, demand-driven guarantee and turns it into a rationed scheme which is controlled from Delhi. It is anti-state and anti-village by design.
Rahul said, "MGNREGA gave the rural worker bargaining power. With real options, exploitation and distress migration fell, wages increased, working conditions improved, all while building and reviving rural infrastructure. That leverage is precisely what this government wants to break."
'We saw what MGNREGA meant during COVID'
Rahul said by capping work and building in more ways to deny it, VB–G RAM G weakens the one instrument which the rural poor had. We saw what MGNREGA meant during COVID. When the economy shut down and livelihoods collapsed, it kept crores from falling into hunger and debt.
According to Rahul, MGNREGA helped women the most. "Year after year, women have contributed more than half the person-days. When you ration a jobs programme, it is women, Dalits, Adivasis, landless workers and the poorest OBC communities who get pushed out first," he said.
'Law was bulldozed through Parliament without proper scrutiny'
To top it all, this law was bulldozed through Parliament without proper scrutiny. The opposition demand to send the bill to a Standing Committee was rejected. A law that rewires the rural social contract, affecting crores of workers should never be rammed through without serious committee scrutiny, expert consultation, and public hearings.
Rahul said PM Modi’s targets are clear: weaken labour, weaken the leverage of rural India, especially Dalits, OBCs and Adivasis, centralise power, and then sell slogans as “reform”.
"MGNREGA is among the most successful poverty alleviation and empowerment programmes in the world. We will not let this government destroy the rural poor’s last line of defence. We will stand with workers, panchayats, and states to defeat this move and build a nationwide front to ensure this law is withdrawn," Congress leader added.